


Lethdor -- Report on Azerite

by MaureenLycaon



Category: World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth - Fandom
Genre: Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:25:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23130133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaureenLycaon/pseuds/MaureenLycaon
Summary: Lethdor handles azerite for the first time. It's quite astonishing, of course.





	Lethdor -- Report on Azerite

**Author's Note:**

> (Lethdor's first report to the Quel'thalas Geological Society on azerite.
> 
> Copyright disclaimer: the Warcraft universe and games belong to Blizzard Entertainment. Only the interpretation and these particular words belong to me, Maureen Lycaon. No copyright challenge intended.)

An hour ago, I held a specimen of azerite in my bare hand for the first time.

The hardened crystals were stored in a special specimen box that magically prevents most reactions, either arcane or chemical. At no time before this examination did I handle the substance without special gloves, even when I collected the samples.

A few hours ago, I began examining it in my laboratory, beginning with one of the solid samples. Solid-form azerite crystals present a truly remarkable appearance, unlike any other substance. They glow with a faint golden light, but the base colors are intense blue and yellow. Subjectively, this is one of the most beautiful substances I have ever seen. The crystal type is subhedral and bladed. Specific gravity is 2.51, making it similar to quartz in mass.

I first made certain that no harmful radiation or poison was leaching from the surface of the sample. Finally, I took the risk of holding it in the palm of my bare hand.

The azerite fragment felt heavy and cool in my palm at first, but it quickly warmed up. Suddenly, my mind felt -- opened. How to describe the experience? Enlightening? Transcendent? I do not know what word would be best.

Vistas of magic opened up in my mind's eye. I felt that I understood the arcane as I never had before, grasping connections and energies with limpid clarity.

I thought I might understand every current of magical power flowing through any mineral, from ice to diamond. A thousand new schemas for new and far more powerful gem cuts flared in my thoughts.

Give me a single rock from a formation, and I could understand in every detail every force that shaped its formation: every magma vein that cooled and crystallized into rock, or every lake or sea where sediment was deposited and then pressed into rock. I could quantify every ounce of the pressure hardening sand or sea creatures' shells into stone, and been able to count every hour of those millions of years. I felt that I could know all its history, whether it was gouged out of the earth by a glacier and carried for hundreds of miles, or swept up in a sudden flood and re-deposited in some distant streambed, or simply buried by layers of earth that also turned to rock.

I do not know how long it was before I could open my eyes. When I could, I carefully put down the chunk of azerite. The sensation faded, leaving only a wistful memory of what I had glimpsed. It returned when I picked it up in my bare hand again.

I am still awed and shaken by the experience, and do not know what to make of it. The only thing I am sure of is that azerite is a substance like no other I have ever encountered.


End file.
